D.J. Eliot Position: Defensive Ends Coach Experience: 1st Season at FSU Alma Mater: Wyoming '99

The Eliot File
Birthdate: August 14, 1976
Hometown:Edmond, OK
High School: Edmond Memorial
College: Wyoming
Family: wife, Miekel; son, Dawson; daughters, Drue and Page.

Coaching Background

• Though D.J. Eliot enters his 13th season of collegiate coaching, the Seminoles' defensive ends coach is the youngest member of Jimbo Fisher's staff. Eliot arrived in Tallahassee from Rice, where he spent three seasons as the recruiting coordinator and defensive line coach.

• At Rice, Eliot had oversight of the recruiting process; a challenge given the schools' stringent academic standards. He identified and helped develop two true freshmen defensive ends - Scott Solomon (63 tackles) and Cheta Ozougwu (61) - who led all CUSA linemen with 124 combined tackles. They combined for 21 tackles for loss and 11 sacks.

• Eliot was a member of the 2008 Rice staff which guided the Owls to a 10-3 record, capped by a Texas Bowl victory over Western Michigan. It was the program's first 10-win season since 1949 and first bowl triumph since the 1950 Cotton Bowl.

• He is one of three first-year FSU assistants who spent time on the coaching staff at the University of Miami, where he served as a graduate assistant working with defensive backs and special teams in 2002. Mark Stoops was the Hurricanes' secondary coach. Eddie Gran also did a graduate assistant stint at Miami a decade earlier.

• Eliot earned his first full-time position at Texas State under David Bailiff, coaching defensive backs one season before a two-year stint with the linebackers. Texas State won the Division I-AA Southland Conference in '05 and qualified for the postseason. Bailiff later hired Eliot to join his staff at Rice.

• Eliot's coaching career also led to a season as the linebackers coach at Tulsa, where he was instrumental in developing CUSA Defensive Player of the Year Nick Bunting as well as standouts Nelson Coleman and Chris Chamberlin. Tulsa earned a berth in the Armed Forces Bowl.

• On the field. Eliot played linebacker for three seasons at Wyoming before injuries led him to a place on the Cowboys' coaching staff as a student assistant for what would have been his senior season. He moved into a graduate assistant role in 1999 after earning his undergraduate degree in natural science and was a zoology minor.

Eliot's Coaching Ledger